Tuesday, March 25, 2003

As for myself, I´m still at home as can bee seen by the time I have to spend on my blog ;-) The weather here in Iceland has been so strange lately, the grass was already growing and tulips peeking from the ground but alas, it is now freezing outside and the lovelyest Christmas snow outside...you know the big flaky kind :-)
Well if you´re bored and want to take a short break from work why don´t you check out this etch a sketch ;-)

The Kanamara festival is one of the more intresting of the many japanese festivals, I myself have attended a festivaldedicated to the "kappa" a mythical creature often referred to in cartoons as well as observed Pokemon and Titanic floats at the more traditional of festivals. A Festival in Japanese is called a Mazuri, hence Kanamara Mazuri
As you can see the festival focuses upon the phallus and typical of such mazuris are phallus shaped sweets, men in oh so very pink drags carrying floats, a phallus sewsaw for prosperity and an assortment of sweets and crackers containing various ideas to enhance ones love life.

Religion and sex have a long history of comfortable coexistence in Japan. This is clearly implied even in the national creation myths in which the kami, or central male and female deities - Izanagi no Mikoto and Izanami no Mikoto - are said to have stirred the primordial muck with a "heavenly jeweled spear" before creating the island of Onogoro. The couple then descended from the heavens and married, with Izanami giving birth to Japan's islands as well as its many gods. And, according to such ancient chronicles as the Kojiki (Record of Ancient Matters) that relates the national mythology, the goddess Amenouzume no Mikoto flashed her
sexual organs at the other kami, or divinities, in their cosmic abode. Curious about the resulting commotion, the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu (who
had plunged the world into darkness by cloistering herself in a cave), peered out from her hiding place, caught her reflection in a mirror, and was abducted from herrefuge, an act that restored light to the world.

I think That´s enough folklore for the day;-) don´t you ? Be sure to click on the pictures to visit the sites I borrowed the pictures from seeing as they have a much better indepth description of the festival as well as loads of photos ;-)
The Title is also a link to a touristy description of the festival. Enjoy :-)

Now for a bit of news from the movie world. First thing first, had any of you realised that the hunk of the new tv series on Skjár einn "The dead Zone" was indeed the former member of the illustrious "Brat Pack" starring as the the nerd in such timeless epics ;-) as the Breakfast club and sixteen candles. Not to mention weird science (ahh those long lost days of beta video tapes ;-)Apparently he is now being sued for being a bipolar maniac, or something along those lines :-/

Next on the news front is that the word "muggle" is to be included in the next edition of the acclaimed Oxford English Dictionary (OED). Normally authors have to wait for their death to have made up words included in the book, but according to latest sources She is still of fine health. Lord Of The Rings writer J.R.R. Tolkein and Lewis Carroll were dead by the time phrases like "hobbit" and "jabberwocky" were included in 1976. Also regarding Potter, the new covers are out ;-) apparently there will be different ones for grown ups and for kids?

The oscars were last night and already the fashion knowitalls have deemed some of the gowns stunning or horrid :-/ The results were pretty much as expected, intresting the tension in the air due to the minor war being waged in the middle east ;-) Michael Moore (II) was both booed as well as applauded when he declared President Bush a... well ;-)
Read it for yourselves ; "We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons. Whether it is the fiction of duct tape or the fiction of orange alerts, we are against this war, Mr. Bush. Shame on you, Mr. Bush!," ... u catch my drift. Adrian Brody was slightly more eloquent when he accepted his oscar and recieved a warm applause "My experience in making this film made me very aware of the sadness and the dehumanization of people at times of war and the repercussions of war. Whether you believe in God or Allah, may he watch over you and let's pray for a peaceful and swift resolution." Colin
Farell was there presenting U2 and said something that sounded very intresting in Irish ;-) I´m guessing ;-Þ

As for myself ;-) I´m still at home with Elena, her temperature is now down to 37.9 !! Yeah :-D and here I am hoping to get to work today ;Þ oh well, she´s also going mad wanting to get back to playschool ;-)

Monday, March 24, 2003

Try your hand at this infuriating quiz I came accross. In it you´re supposed to guess from looking at facial photos whether the person is Korean, Chinese or Japanese :-) Please let me know what your results were ;-) !!

Having troubles aligning and downloading here on Blogger :-/ Otherwise all is as usual, Ragnar no longer has high temperatures but following Murphys law Elena is now around 39 centigrades ;-) cest la vite...At least they´re both very easy to take care of when they´re ill, no hassle at all really ! :-D My only problem is work, because seeing as I´m alone with them there´s no one else to share homestaying duties with me :-/ Thankfully I live in a small community and my employers have up until now shown me a great deal of patience :-) I´m so looking forward to getting back to work as well, the school just had a completely new set of computers installed and I´m dying to experience the opportunity to teach a whole information technology class where everyone has a computer that works fully :-) It takes little to make little minds happy ;-)

I just had to include this one seeing as I´m kind of Welsh.......what .? you didn´t know that.....? that explains a lot you say ....ha ha ha ;-) No really, .. dad went to university in Aberystwyth and Steini in Lampeter (before he got kicked out that is) and I have it on good authority that in China ones nationality depends upon the country in which one was concieved in.......hence........well let me put it this way...right about nine months after dads graduation from university I was born ;-Þ there´s a bit of useless information you didn´t really want to know ;-) serves u right :D

Friday, March 21, 2003

I just added a link to a blog that appears to be genuine, how sceptical is one becoming when one doubts the validity of a blog ;-) ? But this blogpage is special for the reason that it describes firsthand the situation in Bagdhad :-/ I also added links to various anti war sites. Check out the quotation at the top of Raeds blog, I can´t help but agree. What do you think?

Wednesday, March 19, 2003

Wonder why this war fills us with so much dismay... ? It is downright against everything we´ve ever been taught !!

An excerpt from Michael Moores letter to Bush.....
5. Of the 535 members of Congress, only ONE (Sen. Johnson of South Dakota) has an enlisted son or daughter in the armed forces! If you really want to stand up for America, please send your twin daughters over to Kuwait right now and let them don their chemical warfare suits. And let's see every member of Congress with a child of military age also sacrifice their kids for this war effort. What's that you say? You don't THINK so? Well, hey, guess what -- we don't think so either!

Came across an article that discusses censorship on the internet and the ways to circumvent those censorships.

Makes one wonder.

Here in Iceland the state monopolizes all alcohol vending. The consumption of alcohol is prohibited for anyone younger than twenty, ahh my mistake, actually it is more like the selling of alcohol to those younger than twenty is punishable by law but the police do not interfere with youngsters drinking alcohol as long as they’re not making a public nuisance of themselves.

Seeing as one comes of age here in Iceland at the age of 18, it would seem logical to transfer the alcohol law over to 18 rather than stick with the old leftovers from the prohibition..? thoughts ?

Regarding prohibition...
fact : Drugs are illegal
fact : drugs exist and can be purchased by just about anyone
Is the state supposed to have sense for us or are we supposed to take responsibility for ourselves ?
I admit I am of two minds, I’m very anti drugs and in a way I agree with the state
that having the substances illegal, makes it easier for people to draw the line.

But alcohol ruins families, kills people and drives people to crime..?

Do I want them to ban alcohol and condemn it as an illegal substance.. no...

After this monologue I’ve confirmed that I have not made any sense nor have I come close to making any kind of conclusion :-)

Is the state supposed to look after us by for instance censoring web pages, banning drugs and overseeing the selling of alcohol, or are we expected to look after ourselves and as educated "grownups" (big emphasis on grownups) make our own desicions regarding our health and live? Possibly therefore becoming a burden on society if we were to choose the drug way?

I haven’t written anything of consequence for a couple of days now, been kind of busy feeling pessimistic, overwhelmed and generally just plain sorry for myself ;-) But enough of that, as the alcoholics say, only one thing at a time, focus upon one thing don’t try to encompass everything so..;-) Scotland here I come !!! It just So happens that the school, along with the other elementary schools in the district is planning an “educational” trip to Scotland in June J We just got the reply from the funding committee and we’re off !! Nearly all of the flight costs as well as the hotel costs will be covered for us !! Of course never being one to settle for the smaller packet, my plan is to stay on in the UK and travel around, using this opportunity to meet up with both old and new friends. Amazingly enough I actually have a few friends who wouldn’t object to me coming to stay ;-) even though they haven’t seen me in years. (Little do they remember of me muhaahahhha úps sorry I was going to quit doing that wasn’t I? )
Friends are a pretty good invention aren’t they ;-) I’m really looking forward to this !! So now the plan is edinburgh, Manchester, Clywd, Sheffield, London and Dover. Anyone have any suggestions as to what I need to see? I’ve never been to the Scottish highlands, nor have I seen Loch Ness. Apparently there’s a haunted castle in Clywd that sounds interesting and according to dad there are loads of trains I need to see ;-) There just so happens to be a Buffy convention on in London on the 21st :-/ and I admit that I am of two minds regarding that. Would be fun to try, at least once, but is it worth the expenditure? Ponder Ponder…at least one thing is clear, and that is that on the 27th I’ll be in Sheffield attending the universities open day ! More to come later ;-)

Monday, March 17, 2003

Sunday, March 16, 2003

A letter by Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens)
By right clicking on the "song" you can choose to download the song and then play it with windows media player :-)

The present battle we see for global dominance, I believe, is nothing more than a clash of egos. So with Angel of War, I decided to revisit my legacy of music again and remould another old track, to reflect my thoughts and concerns about the questions to be asked of war today.

What many people don't understand is that there will always be an enemy: the egotistical soul within. The nature of Man is already prone to earthly lusts such as 'greed' and 'envy'. Together with 'pride', the three primal vices have plagued the human being since his first appearance on the bloodstained pages of Time.

Another Bosnia is not what the world needs; the devastation and suffering seen of recent history is ample evidence to support the view of every conscientious objector - of which I am one.

Saturday, March 15, 2003

Big smile :-) So who says good deeds go unrewarded..? The other day a guy from my computer class for farmers phoned up and asked if I would have a look at his coworkers computer seeing as the little guy had dissappeared. Little guy ? I wondered and found out to my amasement that they meant my hated enemy that office assistant. Well not only was the guy missing but the lady had somehow deleted all microsoft pograms... So I took the kids over to the ...well it´s the house next door and it´s a home for mentally and physically handicapped, do I took the kids over with me and spent about an hour fixing things to the best of my capabilities, well to make this already long story short, the lady just returned from her home country of Germany and handed me a great big box of Lindt finest pralines (Pralines, Belgian filled chocolates) :D seeing as the kids are away I´m looking forward to a very nice weekend with Pralines, beer, tv and plenty of sleep :-) ahh how priorities change with old age ;-Þ

Friday, March 14, 2003

Just came accross a really good art site, by one Anders Finér . Really nice sci fi /fantasy art. Well thought out, very nice workmanship and my favorite, strong sharp contrasts often in a monotone, i.e. only one main colour. :-) Brightened my day ;-)

Sorry, no real posts from me today, have been to busy with creating or rather destroying Svavas Blog page ;-) She didn´t know what she was letting her self in for when she asked for my help , muhahahahaaa (o.k. I know that´s getting a bit tired). Bjarni picked the kids up from school today, which made a nice chenge. This will be their first meeting with their father this year :-( It´s dissappointing how little time or attention he gives them, he blames work but still... oh well no use feeling sorry for his loss, which is precicely what it is. The only thing I lament is the affect it has on the children, Ragnar was "quitecontrary" this morning, nothing was right and he ended up having a crying fit, not at all like his usual charmin morning persona :-( It´s not at all that they fear going to him or anything like that, it´s just over excitement as well as tension derived from previous broken promices. And face it, if they don´t meet him more often than for a weekend every other month..,.,., what the hell, can´t be bothered dwelling on it :-) We´re on to newer and happier places ;-) Have a look at the new blog link to the left, Nicks blog, I found it hillarious I hope he cheeres u up after this blah blog ;-) luv Gunnella

Thursday, March 13, 2003

I love these,not solely for the content which incidentally brings a grin to me face as well as a chuckle, but for the folkloristic value of it. Those who know me..well at all.. know that I have been forever literally trying to finish my Ba thesis. My main problem has been that after a while I tire of my topic and start all over again instead of finishing what I´d already started. The one I´ve been writing now for little over two years :-( bleh... is, incidentally, about jokes. I´ve been concentrating on the picture jokes and cartoons that floated on the web for approx a year after the eleventh of September. What struck me as the most intresting point is the way the media is as much in the spotlight as the evil doers. The media, or rather the overwhelming amounts of ads and stuff seem to define boundaries, i.e. those of us that watch the same ad, know the same programs and listen to the same music are in group A and then there are the others....The fact that the media milk us for every ounce of emotion when it comes to big catastrophies like the abovementioned, until we become desensitised, is aggravating although it seems unavoidable.... o.k. I´ve started wandering, no wonder it´s nearly 12 and I´ve been up since 6 working all day ;-) So to finish my ramblings, the picture below is intresting mainly for the way it makes as much if not more fun of the irritating as hell microsoft assistant than it does of President Bush. Not to mention that the joke also assumes that everyone watching the joke knows the program, knows the political situation and can patch it together. So tell me..! Is this a web geek thing, and I´m just too much of a web geek to see that or is it a sign of a communal group, sharing similar experiences although possibly residing in completely different parts of the world. Is this an indication of a new society where not everyone in the same local area are particioners but everyone who share the web? Goodnight to you all :-) (presumptious of me thinking there will be anyone reading this ;-)

Wednesday, March 12, 2003

Your distinct personality, The Benevolent Ruler might be found in most of the thriving kingdoms of the time. You are the idealistic social dreamer. Your overriding goal is to solve the people problems of your world. You are a social reformer who wants everyone to be happy in a world that you can visualize. You are exceptionally perceptive about the woes and needs of humankind. You often have the understanding and skill to readily conceive and implement the solutions to your perceptions. On the positive side, you are creatively persuasive, charismatic and ideologically concerned. On the negative side, you may be unrealistically sentimental, scattered and impulsive, as well as deviously manipulative. Interestingly, your preference is just as applicable in today's corporate kingdoms.

Sound familiar anyone.... for more fun as well as some useful personality or job tests check out this page ;-) enjoy

Tuesday, March 11, 2003

Monday, March 10, 2003

Hey :-) it seems that someone did something in responce to my blog from the seventh ;-) what and why and perhaps wherefore you ask..
well apparently I was number 10 on teljari.is top 20 jibbeee, fame at last, ...long long last my talents are finally to be acknowledged to the world.Muahahahhhhhhaaaahah ...... ..hey who are the guys in the white suits....me be famous u know. .hey wait. .stop.. .I don´t w........... heellllp.. .aiuto? blink blink pretty please?

You are a geek liaison, which means you go both ways. You can hang out with normal people or you can hang out with geeks which means you often have geeks as friends and/or have a job where you have to mediate between geeks and normal people. This is an important role and one of which you should be proud. In fact, you can make a good deal of money as a translator.

Normal: Tell our geek we need him to work this weekend.

You [to Geek]: We need more than that, Scotty. You'll have to stay until you can squeeze more outta them engines!

Geek [to You]: I'm givin' her all she's got, Captain, but we need more dilithium crystals!

Sunday, March 09, 2003

Is text messaging infecting or liberating the English language? Judge for yourself, as we rewrite classic texts in txt.
When a 13-year-old Scottish girl handed in an essay written in text message shorthand, she explained to her flabbergasted teacher that it was easier than standard English.
She wrote: "My smmr hols wr CWOT. B4, we used 2go2 NY 2C my bro, his GF & thr 3 :- kids FTF. ILNY, it's a gr8 plc." (In translation: "My summer holidays were a complete waste of time. Before, we used to go to New York to see my brother, his girlfriend and their three screaming kids face to face. I love New York. It's a great place.")
The girl's teacher - who asked not to be named - was not impressed, saying: "I could not believe what I was seeing. The page was riddled with hieroglyphics, many of which I simply could not translate."
Text messaging, e-mail and computer spell-checks have long been blamed for declining standards of spelling and grammar. A publisher of a new dictionary warned last Friday of a "degree of crisis" in university students' written English.
"pRting is sch swEt srw"
Despite the advent of predictive text, which completes words as you write them, and even the launch of next generation mobile networks, it seems that the simple texting skills people have learnt in the last three or four years will be around for a while yet.
But could the anonymous Scottish schoolgirl be right? Could txt take over more of our expression because addicts simply find it easier than normal writing? And could this mean the liberation of our use of language?
Already, text message shortcuts have been adopted by those keen to get their point across in as little space as possible, be it advertising copy, poetry or Biblical passages.
Even Shakespeare - famously inconsistent in his own spelling - might succumb. Is it a great travesty to render his more famous passages in text message shorthand?

2b or not 2b thats ?

a @(---`---`--- by any otha name wd sml swEt

rm rm w4Ru rm?

1nc mr un2 T brech dr frnds 1nc mr

The Lord's Prayer, for instance, could be thought of as somewhat stuffy even in its updated version, so the satirical Christian online magazine Ship of Fools ran a competition to rewrite it in 160 characters or less - the length of a mobile phone text message.

Is this any different from the Icelandic, or rather old norse texts where skin was so scarce that the words were shortened in order to write as much as possible on each parchment..? Is this really a threat? I admit that as a teacher I´m getting "u", "lol", "ru" and "brb" in my essays ...? Comments anyone ;-) Jón Jóns..?

Hey is this something I might actually hide behind ;-) I guess not.. but ..hey worth the try...and at least I´m procrastinating meanwhilst by looking up procrastination when I desperately should be using my time to finish the school paper..

He he came accross this Item....makes one wonder ... ;Þ
--"If English was good enough for Jesus Christ, it's good enough for
me." a congressman to Dr. Davis Edwards, head of the Joint National
Committee on Language, about the necessity for a commercial nation to
be multi-lingual.

Saturday, March 08, 2003

Went to the troubador evening last night :-) Difficult getting a babysitter seeing as almost all teenagers in the village were away at the Samfés disco ;-) Had some parents bemoaning the good old days, before discos away in Reykjavík (the big evil capital) and before "daddy will you buy me some condoms" :-) Funny listening to the two o’clock at night moanings of a drunk father :Þ Had a great time, the troubadours were local people and as could be expected differed in their talent for singing, playing and instrument and/or remembering texts ;-) well one can’t have everything ... There was definitely some talent about, the most surprising one an older gentleman named Baldur who turned out to be an amazing singer....!! He even remembered his texts ;-) sorry .. the one before him, had a great voice as well as an excellent stage presence but alas.... no idea as to what it was he was singing, or rather what it was he "was supposed to be" singing. One band really surpriced me, three kids, well young men ;-) took to the stage and had, presence, voice, talent and...they remembered their texts !! All in all an excellent evening, not too much beer drunken (by me that is), some dancing done, some good music auded as well some horrible attempts at making music auded. Then a good long walk home .. Blönduós is really funny in the way it is designed, on each side of the river there are town centres, but to reach the other one has to go pretty far up river to cross the bridge :-( making a short distance a very long walk. But I kept myself company by singing loads of old Eurovision songs "loudly" and enjoying myself thoroughly :-D. My poor babysitters were more asleep than awake when I returned :-/ but oh so sweet about it :-) Hey they watched (in my computer) loads of Buffy episodes and other things that won’t reach Iceland in next couple of years! Oh well, now I’ve got to go, got to learn how adobe page maker works in one day, in order to set up the school magazine tomorrow..! I know I know I am indeed the Queen of procrastinators ! I take my bow and accept the honour as well as the consequences... It’s a way of life ;-) Ciao for now.

Hrumphff :( now my comments system doesn´t work :Þ
My e-mail is gunnella@yahoo.com if you do indeed have any comments, it would be nice to know is anyone is indeed reading this ... whatever... Well I´m off to bed, Good night (k)

He he .. :-) Looking at the picture I just realised this town is definitily getting Far too small for me :-) Apparently there have been stories linking me romantically to the guy in the center (who used to be the mayor of the town) as well as the one on the far right. And the guy on the far left #censored# As I say it´s too small a town for me ;-Þ and me (for a change) haven´t been up to anything (here) whilst living here !!! Any comments anyone, I know you have some Svava !!

Hollywood star Martin Sheen is facing getting fired from his role as President Jed Bartlett in TV hit The West Wing - because of his outspoken views on war. The Apocalypse Now actor has been the most vocal of a growing number of celebrity names strongly opposed to conflict with Iraq. He has addressed rallies and spearheaded last week's "virtual match" in Washington DC, where legislators were bombarded with a million emails, telephone calls and faxes from protesters. But Sheen's strong political views are causing problems for West Wing bosses at NBC, who fear they face a boycott from advertisers. The actor claims NBC executives have told him his high profile could damage the show and called on him to explain his views. Meanwhile, Sheen and other stars among the anti-war lobby are also facing a public backlash because of their controversial standpoint. While the actor confesses he has received thousands of hate emails, been accused of being a traitor and accosted in the street, an internet organization has been founded to counter the anti-war movement. A message on the Citizens Against Celebrity Pundits declares itself a voice for, "American citizens who stand against wealthy Hollywood celebrities abusing their status to speak for us." It adds, "We believe that celebrities Martin Sheen, Mike Farrell, Tim Robbins, Rob Reiner, Barbra Streisand and others with them are using their celebrity to interfere with the defense of our country."
Bull

Wednesday, March 05, 2003

We Celebrated ash wednesday here in our school today, it is connected to the carnevale and the beginning of the fast ;-) In Iceland we have a three day celebration, beginning on Monday with creamy bun eating after the kids have awakened their parents by bumming them, i.e. spanking them with brightly colored sticks. Then on Tuesday there is the gorging of oneself on salted meat and bean soup (yummy) and the Wednesday one dresses up in fancy costumes, goes galavanting about town begging for sweets, pins bags onto other peoples backs without them knowing it and the finally slams the piniata ;-) Humm anyone notice our talent for taking all the nice holiday customs from other countries and making them our own..;-) ??? I had a presentation for the fifth, sixth and the seventh grade, where I showed them pictures from the Carnevale in Venice, the carnaval in Rio and then of course Mardi Gras. I showed them the different costumes, the masks, the history of the masks and developement, the floats, the dancing groups and so on.. The kids never cease to amaze me :-) I would ask the questions like "what do you think the music sounds like behind them?" and they would get the baroque feeling and the samba beat right :-) Then we had different stations where the kids could paint the piniata, paint each others faces, play cards, make masks and more .... well ...So now off I go home to finish sewing Ragnars "prince" costume and to try to find Elenas magic wand and then at eight we´ll be going to the costume ball where the "cat in the barrel will be hit" i.e. a piniata :-)
If you´d like to see more pictures from the Icelandic custom of Ash Wednesday the try these :-) 1, 2, 3, 4.

I´m finally convinced ;-) I do indeed have superpowers, no more no less !!!! Between 3 and 6 today I taught a computer class for grown up farmers, supervised the school paper committee whilst phoning out for sponsors, looked after Ragnar my son, saw to restocking the art department at school and assisted a couple of my english evening class students with their translations.. ;-) I´m amazing....and oh so very modest ;-) So after walking to the store (the car is OF COURSE not functioning) and picking up Elena from the babysitter I can relax at home :-) Nothing left to do now but make the traditional bean soup and salted meat which is compulsuory today (a kind of carneval thing from heathen days), sew a prince costume for Ragnar Christian (tomorrow all the kids will go out in fancy costumes singing for sweets) and collect/print loads of carnevale pictures from around the world to use in a theme based project for the 5th 6th and the 7th grade :-) And the sleep, fine sleep ZZzzzzzzzzzz

Tuesday, March 04, 2003

It seems like ages since she was this small ;-) ahh I can feel a strange tingling sensation in my nether regions calling out for ... ;Þ ok I´ll shut up now :-)
p.s. if the page doesn´t load properly then check out the pic here

Found a nice page on folkloristic journals, made me start thinking about getting my folklore page up and running again... I´ve actually put in a lot of work I just need to refine the page and decide upon a language !! as it is it wavers between Icelandic and English quite ungraciously and completely pointlessly. Terrys link page is all very good aside from the horrid layout, the colour combination and the many impartant links missing from the list. Terry if you´re reading this then sorry, as you would put it when going over one of my essays ;-) "the object is good, research is very good, might have given yourself more time to work on the layout, but all in all a pretty good page ;-) Never mind, I think I´m off to watch the importance of being Earnest ;-) Give us a holler ...only had one person send me their thoughts ;-) Cheers.

--"If English was good enough for Jesus Christ, it's good enough for
me." a congressman to Dr. Davis Edwards, head of the Joint National
Committee on Language, about the necessity for a commercial nation to
be multi-lingual.

--"We need laws that protect everyone - men and women, straights and
gays, regardless of sexual perversion...ah, persuasion." Bella
Abzug, New York politician addressing a rally for the Equal Rights
Amendment.

Ok..the weekend is now at it´s end. There has been learning, partying as well as new friendmaking. All in all a very good weekend :-) As always seeing as I´m so easily influenced, I´m now considering a new venue of studies. Up until now the plan has been to apply to the university for admittance into the teaching unit. That being only one year I was then fantazising about going to England, Sheffield to be precice, and taking Japanese studies in conjunction with folkloristics, cumulating with a Ma. Thus enabling me to pursue the fantasy of university teaching..of course after having taught for some time in a high school first. At the conference however, I heard of a diploma course in computer studies/graphical design yummy, something I´ve always wanted to study, not to mention that it´s being taught up the street ;-) across the street from Ragnars elementary school and in plain view of the playschool I´m trying to get Elena into. Downside being, 1. I don´t know if it´s seen as worth giving out student loans to those who study it. 2. it´s a change of track, I wouldn´t be so much furthering my studies as I would be side tracking along a road that has enticed me for years now. Humm it´s a complicated life, far to many choices ;-) but still I wouldn´t have it any other way !! By the by sorry about all the debugging stuff going on...having an awful time trying to ingratate a new shout out system , :Þ should have left it as it was..I know

Sunday, March 02, 2003

Had the most horrible dream two nights ago :( decided to share it seeing as I Can´t get it off my mind..I get flashes of visions from the dream in the middle of lectures, eating or even ... :/
I can´t remember the whole lot, it seems everything was in a mess at home (thats a new thing yeah..right) and it seemed like there was a carcass on a shelf or something, loads of rubbish covering it :Þ I kept meaning to tidy it up, take it out to the garbage pail, but I also kept putting it off, decided it could wait till morning, then till evening and so on...Then when I finally saw it was rotting and there worms emanating from it, I brought myself to tidy it up but found, much to my surprice that under it all was Elena. She was all blue and dehydraded, gasping for air..I gave her some water and was about to clean her when I noticed that her leg was horribly broken..
O.k. obviously this is a form of bad concience, I´m working far to hard, staying out two evenings teaching as well as two late afternoons per week and the at the weekend, at least this time round, I sent them to their grandfathers farm to spend the weekend whilst I jetted off to this conference. As well as a quilty concience from not giving my kids enough time there´s also the added stress of working full time at one job, teaching two different courses for grown ups in the evenings, being the editor of the school paper that is due to be printed in a weeks time and is FAR behind schedule and...to top it all, added responsibility at work which I find myself (as I noted to the headmaster) not qualified enough to handle.... But the dream was horrid, just thinking about it makes me want to curl up into a corner and cry.....It´s kind of irritating all this stress because the winter so far has been so nice and I´ve managed to keep my ...hummm well, serotin level pretty balnced, i.e. I, for a change haven´t been down in the dumps. I´ve finally gotten over my ex properly, which gave me added control over my life and everything seemed to be going so well....oh well the paper thing will be over in a week .... Sorry to be so bothersome and low :-) I´ll be in a better mood next time I add an entry, I promice !

Saturday, March 01, 2003

Intresting ... ? I´ve written two blogs in the past day or so but neither one has shown up..oh well :-) Here I am at the annual information technology in schools conference and enjoying myself immensely :-) Yesterday whilst at a lecture introducing a web that focuses on teaching icelandic art and artists to youngsters I actually got offered a job ;-) Well not quite but apparently the national museum is setting up a web crawl for youngsters and hey..guess what I´m a computer geek as well as a folklorist (well very nearly a folklorist ;-) So I´m planning to get in touch with them after the weekend, would be a great job to have alongside school :-) As I see it I´m on the computer every night might as well get paid for it :-) As I said the conference is fun :-) I love meeting loads of intresting new people and asking qustions at seminar and stalls as if I actually know what I´m talking about. Went out partying last night ...of course, one HAS to use the opportunity whilst staying the the second largest city in Iceland, right ;-) ?? Buff was playing at Cafe Akureyri, and theyre always good fun (ok dirty fun ;Þ ) and the Jón Kjartan and the Úlfar (wolfes) were playing at the Græni hatturinn. Came home at about four thirty only slightly more than inebriated....feeling the slight side effects today ;-) well I´ve got to be off, attending a lecture on microsoft.net :/ am told it´s intresting...admittingly from an unreliable source...the lecturer himself whilst out drinking last night..the poor sod was in a great deal of pain..earler that day he´d dropped a washingmaschine on his big toe on his right foot ;-) awwww feeling very sympathetic....